Price: $ 11.98
Beach Boys TodayLimited edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve.The cover for this 1965 album shows five nice young men in coordinated sweaters and neatly combed hair: all-American boys ready to do battle against those scruffy Englishmen who had recently laid siege to radio USA. The reality was much different: band leader and creative mainstay Brian Wilson had recently suffered a nervous breakdown on the road and announced he would no longer tour. The upside was Wilson’s deepening devotion to the studio and its possibilities. The themes of Wilson’s joyous music were also taking on surprisingly mature perspectives: the introspection of “When I Grow Up,” the yearning of “Please Let Me Wonder,” and the resignation of “She Knows Me Too Well.” Even the version of the hit “Help Me, Rhonda” included on the album is more spacious and refined. Though it precedes Pet Sounds by a year and two albums, admirers of that landmark disc will be pleased to find its musical and thematic seeds were sown on this one. –Jerry McCulley
